BEGIN:VCALENDAR
VERSION:2.0
X-WR-CALNAME:www.indybay.org
PRODID:-//indybay/ical// v1.0//EN
BEGIN:VEVENT
UID:Indybay-18738167
SEQUENCE:18842760
CREATED:20130608T212200Z
DESCRIPTION:A rally will be held at the San Francico Japanese Consulate demanding the
immediate removal of Osaka's mayor Toru Hashimoto. Hashimoto defended the
use of sexual slaves by the Japanese military during the 2nd WW and also
the use of prostitutes in the US bases in Okinawa to prevent rapes. He has
also supported the continued operation of nuclear plants and the arrest of
anti-nuclear activists in Osaka. The militarization and continued support
for restarting Japan's 50 nuclear plants is a threat not only to the
Japanese people but to the world. The continued release of radioactive
material at Fukushima and the thousands of gallons of contaminated water
continues to leak into the land and the ocean.\n\nWe must act now to stop
the restart of the plants. The victory in the battle to close the SCE San
Onofre Nuclear Power plant shows that people can have an affect to shut
these dangerous plants down.\n\n\n6/11 Japan Consulate Action-Osaka Mayor
Hashimoto Out-Keep The Nukes Shut And Stop Repressing Anti-Nuke
Activists\nTuesday June 11, 2013 3:00 PM - 5:00 PM\nSan Francisco Japanese
Consulate\n50 Fremont St./Mission\nSan Francisco\n\nThe recent comments of
Osaka mayor Toru Hashimoto that the sexual slaves from Korea and other
countries of Asia for the Japanese imperial army and navy were necessary
to maintain good discipline among the troops, and that prostitution was
justifiable for the US military in Okinawa as a means to avoid rapes, are
despicable and we condemn them.\n These statements, however, do not
come in a vacuum. The Japanese government and the Abe administration are
seeking to eliminate Article 9, the anti-war clause in the Japanese
constitution, and to remilitarize the country. While trying to whip up
nationalist war hysteria, they have fired teachers who refuse to stand and
sing the national imperial anthem at school assemblies. \n Hashimoto has
also supported the jailing in Osaka of anti-war and anti-nuclear activists
activists who are opposing the central government’s plan to burn nuclear
rubble in all of the prefectures of Japan.\n The US government is
protesting Hashimoto’s remarks regarding the organized enslavement of
‘comfort women’ during WWII. However, the US government is also urging
Japan to eliminate the anti-war clause in its constitution, to restart 50
closed nuclear power plants, and it is aggressively negotiating to ensure
the continued presence and expansion of US military bases in Okinawa and
other parts of Japan.\n We believe that our government’s statements
condemning Hashimoto’s remarks about sexual slavery are duplicitous and
hypocritical. US policies are actually encouraging the politics of
militarization and attacks on human rights by the Japanese government and
politicians like Hashimoto.\n We demand the resignation of Hashimoto as
Mayor of Osaka, an end to the repression of anti-nuclear activists, and we
stand in opposition to the removal or weakening of Article 9. We also call
for the removal of all US bases in Okinawa and Japan. These bases continue
to cause grievous harm to Japanese women in particular. Japan’s ecology
and all of its people are continually threatened by the toxic load of the
American military presence.\n It is time for action by people of the US
and Japan to end to the statements of Mayor Hashimoto, and the actions
behind them.\n\nNo Nukes Action
Committee\nhttp://nonukesaction.wordpress.com/\n\n\nThe San Francisco -
Osaka Sister City Association Disassociates Itself From Statements of Osaka
Mayor Toru Hashimoto\nOn the Osaka Mayor Hashimoto's Recent
Statement\nhttp://www.sf-osaka.org/modules/reports/\nThe San Francisco -
Osaka Sister City Association would like to make clear that the recent
statement by Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto to justify the sex slavery system
imposed by the Japanese military during World War II as a necessity of war
in no way reflects the position of the Association, nor the spirit of the
sister city relationship.\nThe San Francisco - Osaka sister city
relationship was forged from the ashes of World War II as an historic
effort to improve relations between the United States and Japan. Statements
that justify controversial wartime abuses and devastating violence against
women are damaging to international relations, and contrary to the mission
of the Association. We urge proactive efforts by Mayor Hashimoto to address
the negative impacts of his damaging statement.\n\nJapan mayor Toru
Hashimoto: Wartime prostitution was
necessary\nhttp://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6_LMk8jmd2s\nJapan
mayor: Wartime prostitution was necessary\nPublished on May 14, 2013\nA
leading Japanese politician has called the use of sex slaves by Japanese
soldiers during world war two a "necessary system". \nToru Hashimoto, the
Osaka mayor, made the reference to about 200,000 women, mostly Korean and
Chinese, who were believed to have been coerced into becoming so-called
comfort women. \nHis comments have provoked reactions from others in Japan,
and the region.\nAl Jazeera's Harry Fawcett reports from
Seoul.\n\n\n\nMayor Osaka Hashimoto
Quotes\nhttp://christythomas.com/2013/05/15/japanese-sex-slaves-and-the-nature-of-truth/\n“To
maintain discipline in the military, it must have been necessary at that
time,” Hashimoto said. “For soldiers who risked their lives in
circumstances where bullets are flying around like rain and wind, if you
want them to get some rest, a comfort women system was necessary. That’s
clear to
anyone.”\n\nhttp://www.japantoday.com/category/kuchikomi/view/hashimotos-party-faces-extinction-some-media-say\nBut
he was not done yet. That same evening he spoke of a recent visit he’d
made to Okinawa, in the course of which, he said, he urged American troops
stationed there to make more use of local sex services. “Otherwise,” he
said he said, “brave Marines won’t be able to control their sexual
energy.”\n\n\nWomen’s Blood Boiling!—400 People Gather to Protest
against
Hashimoto\nhttp://labornetjp.blogspot.com/2013/06/womens-blood-boiling400-people-gather.html\n\n\nThe
hall in the upper house was filled with people, later flooding out to the
hallway. People were standing in the back, and those who could not enter
the hall listened to presentations in the hallway. The protest action
against Hashimoto’s comment on May 22 had about 400 angry people, more
than 90 percent of whom were women. “We cann’t ever forgive him,”
“He should resign right now,” “Hashimoto and Abe are the same” etc
etc… anger never stopped. Some 235 groups raised their voice against
Hashimoto’s repeated comments such as “comfort women were necessary”
and “the US military should make good use of sex industry to relieve
Marine’s sexual energy.” There were media organizations covering this
event from Hong Kong and South Korea besides domestic media. Labornet TV
live-streamed the event from 2 p.m. to 5 p.m.
\n\n女たちの怒り沸騰！～「橋下発言に抗議する緊急院内集会」に400人\n参
院議員会館講堂が埋まった！あふれた！
会場は立ち見になり、入場できない人たちが会館の外にも並んだ。5月22日午後3時から開催された「女性の人権を尊重する政治を！橋下発言に抗議する緊急
院内集会」には、約400人が詰めかけた。9割以上が女性。「絶対許せない」「すぐにヤメロ」「橋下と安倍は一緒」、怒りの声は止まらない。戦時中は「慰
安婦制度が必要なのは誰だってわかる」「海兵隊の性的エネルギーを解消するためにもっと風俗業を活用するよう進言した」など、たびかさなる橋下の暴言に、
235団体が抗議の声をあげた。メディアも国内だけでなく、香港・韓国からも取材が入った。レイバーネットTVでは、午後2時半～午後5時まで、熱気にあ
ふれた集会の模様を生中継した。\n\nGo fight City Hall: People
opposing Osaka Mayor Toru Hashimoto's remarks about the wartime 'comfort
women' hold up signs saying 'Don't forgive Hashimoto's discrimination
toward women' during a Friday rally in front of Osaka City Hall. |
KYODO\nhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/25/national/hashimoto-in-unprecedented-crisis/#.UaA_nY6hDzI\nNATIONAL
/ POLITICS | ANALYSIS\nHashimoto in unprecedented crisis\n'Comfort women'
outrage in U.S. also warning to Abe?\nBY ERIC JOHNSTON\nSTAFF WRITER\n •
MAY 25, 2013\nOSAKA – The list of those in and out of Japan, but
especially in the United States, who scorn and deride Osaka Mayor and
Nippon Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) coleader Toru Hashimoto for
his justification for the wartime “comfort women” is growing daily,
presenting a unprecedented crisis for the once-popular
politician.\n\nHashimoto’s remarks that the sexual slavery system had
been necessary during the war and that U.S. service members in Okinawa
should spend more time at paid sex establishments to prevent indecent
assaults against local women are being decried by increasing numbers of
Americans.\n\nHowever, those in the U.S. who follow bilateral relations —
as well as Hashimoto’s supporters — say he is only a convenient
whipping boy and the real source of American wrath is actually Prime
Minister Shinzo Abe and his Cabinet.\n\nSince May 13, when Hashimoto
uttered his remarks, the U.S. State and Defense departments, congressional
representatives, the city of San Francisco, and a former U.S. ambassador to
Japan have all issued statements of condemnation.\n\nIn the U.S. Congress,
Democratic Rep. Mike Honda, who led a 2007 congressional resolution that
criticized Japan, and, indirectly, then-Prime Minister Abe, over its stance
on the comfort women and called for a formal apology, said Hashimoto’s
comments were “repulsive.”\n\n“His view is an affront to history,
humanity, and most of all to the young women who were coerced into horrific
psychological, physical, emotional and sexual violence, including gang
rape, forced abortion, humiliation and mutilation,” Honda said last
week.\n\nBut American concern over Japan’s politicians discussing the
comfort women issue predates Hashimoto’s remarks.\n\nFormer U.S.
Ambassador to Japan Thomas Schieffer told an audience in Washington before
Hashimoto made his remarks that he was concerned about suggestions from the
Abe government that it wanted to revisit the 1993 Kono Statement. That
declaration said the Japanese military was, directly or indirectly,
involved in the establishment and management of brothels across Asia for
its troops and the transfer of comfort women to work in them.\n\n“There
is no constituency in the U.S. for a position that says, ‘boys will be
boys.’ To revisit the Kono Statement would, in my judgment, do great harm
to Japan’s interests in the U.S. and throughout the rest of Asia,”
Schieffer said in reference to remarks Abe made in recent months suggesting
he didn’t quite agree with the 1993 direct apology to the sex slaves
issued by then-Chief Cabinet Secretary Yohei Kono.\n\nMindy Kotler,
director of the Washington-based Asia Policy Point and one of those
involved in the drafting of a 2007 congressional comfort women resolution,
said the reaction in Washington was more one of embarrassment at
Hashimoto’s comments than alarm.\n\n“Yes, criticism of Hashimoto is a
comfortable way to criticize Abe. But Japan-watchers in Washington take the
same position as their Liberal Democratic Party friends,” she said,
referring to Abe’s ruling party. “Hashimoto is an outsider, literally.
He is not someone who can be taken seriously.\n\n“However, they are all
concerned that Abe is getting a bit more strident than they would like.
They, along with the State and Defense departments, have been sending
messages that Abe should tone it down and also not go to (war-linked)
Yasukuni Shrine,” Kotler added.\n\nAs to Hashimoto’s comments regarding
sex establishments and U.S. forces in Okinawa, what he did was to open a
Pandora’s Box on a matter that had long been taboo among those in Tokyo
and Washington who deal with the security alliance: that of prostitution
and sexual violence in communities near U.S. military bases.\n\nBut
combined with his comfort women comments, Hashimoto’s Okinawa remarks in
many quarters were interpreted, legitimately or not, as advocating a
modern-day comfort women system in the prefecture.\n\n“What U.S.
servicemen did and do on Okinawa is no surprise and there is no shock value
in bringing it up. However, there is a difference between free enterprise
prostitution and state-organized sex slavery,” Kotler said.\n\nJapan
Osaka Racist Sexist Reactionary Mayor to meet with former 'comfort women'
and meeting in June with SF Mayor Ed Lee\n"a U.S. official in Japan hinted
Hashimoto could find himself an unwanted
guest."\n\nhttp://www.japantimes.co.jp/news/2013/05/17/national/hashimoto-stays-in-the-hot-seat/#.UZXCTo6hDzI\nHashimoto
stays in the hot seat\nBY ERIC JOHNSTON\nSTAFF WRITER\n • MAY 17,
2013\nOSAKA – International condemnation of Osaka Mayor Toru
Hashimoto’s comment that the wartime sex slavery system was necessary
continued Thursday, with the United States calling the mayor and Nippon
Ishin no Kai (Japan Restoration Party) coleader’s remarks outrageous and
offensive.\n\nMeanwhile, the city of Osaka announced Hashimoto would meet
with two Korean former “comfort women” next week in a bid to defuse the
situation.\n\nNext month, Hashimoto plans to travel to San Francisco, where
he is scheduled to meet with Edwin Lee, the city’s first Asian-American
mayor and the former director of its human rights commission. After that,
Hashimoto plans to visit New York to meet with Mayor Michael
Bloomberg.\n\nBut a U.S. official in Japan hinted Hashimoto could find
himself an unwanted guest.\n\n“As the U.S. has previously stated, what
happened in that era to these women who were trafficked for sexual purposes
is deplorable, and a grave human rights violation of enormous
proportions,” the official said. “We understand Hashimoto is planning
to travel to the U.S. We are not sure that anybody will want to meet
him.”\n\nHashimoto will have a public meeting with the two former sex
slaves on May 24 at City Hall.\n\nThe event was hastily arranged under
tremendous pressure by members of Hashimoto’s own party and others in
City Hall out of fear the controversy is damaging Osaka’s domestic and
international reputation.\n\nAt the national political level, the fallout
is affecting Nippon Ishin’s relations with key ally Your Party, which has
been scrambling to reassure voters that its views on history, at least, are
different from Hashimoto’s.\n\nYour Party was planning to cooperate with
Nippon Ishin in the upcoming Upper House election.\n\nOn Wednesday evening,
however, Your Party leader Yoshimi Watanabe told reporters his party might
end its election cooperation agreement.\n\n“If Hashimoto’s historical
views are the same views as his party, we’ll review our relationship,”
Watanabe said.\n\nNew Komeito, which cooperates with Hashimoto’s local
group, Osaka Ishin no Kai (One Osaka), in the municipal assembly, where
they form the ruling coalition, is also furious.\n\nNew Komeito leader
Natsuo Yamaguchi, in his email magazine Wednesday, called Nippon Ishin,
with its coleaders Hashimoto and Shintaro Ishihara, who believe the sex
slave system was necessary, a “reckless political party.”\n\n“The
good sense of the voters will flatly reject a party with these kinds of
leaders,” he said.\n\nAs criticism continues, Hashimoto went on
television Thursday to say it was inappropriate that he suggested the U.S.
military in Okinawa should make more use of the legal sex industry as a way
to curb servicemen’s sexual impulses.\n\n“My way of expressing myself
was poor. I talked about legal establishments, which didn’t mean I was
promoting prostitution,” he said. “My understanding of America’s sex
industry culture was insufficient. In America, if you say ‘sex
industry,’ people immediately think of prostitution. . . . What I wanted
to say was that I wanted to control sex crimes in Okinawa with a real
argument,” he said, adding that he lacked “international
awareness.”\n\nBut he stuck to his basic stance that the comfort women
system had been necessary during the war and said international debate on
the issue is important.\n\n“If you get angry at the opposite reactions
and don’t proclaim your views, then you can’t connect with people
around the world,” Hashimoto said.\n\nHe told reporters Thursday evening
he agrees with the Nippon Ishin Diet group that his comments regarding sex
establishments in Okinawa were inappropriate. However, he also urged the
U.S. to think about not just the human rights of the comfort women, but
also the rights of people living near U.S. bases in the prefecture.\n\nHe
also admitted his remarks would likely negatively affect his U.S. trip in
June and some Americans may choose not to meet him. But he added that if
U.S. human rights groups ask to meet him and discuss his comments, he
would.\n\nOsaka mayor sticks to noxious comments on comfort
women\nhttp://english.hani.co.kr/arti/english_edition/e_international/589315.html\nPosted
on : May.28,2013 06:14 KST\n • \n프린트\n\n\n\nJapanese women cry as
they listen to testimonies from two South Korean former comfort women at
the Nara Human Rights Center in Japan, May 26. The two women are currently
touring Japan, providing public testimony of their experiences. (by Lee
Jeong-ah, staff photographer) \nProminent politician Toru Hashimoto did
retract controversial comments on soldiers and brothels in Japan\nBy Jeong
Nam-ku, Tokyo correspondent\nToru Hashimoto, Mayor of Osaka and co-leader
of the Japan Restoration Party, took back his suggestion that US military
forces in Japan make use of houses of prostitution. However, he did not
retract his rash remarks that the so-called comfort women, or women who
were forced into sexual slavery by the Japanese, were necessary during
wartime.\nAccording to Japanese media reports released on May 26, Hashimoto
appeared on TV on May 25 where he apologized to the US and to the American
people for his remarks and expressed his desire to retract them. Early in
May, the Japanese politician had suggested to the commander of the US
Marine Corps Air Station Futenma on Okinawa that US soldiers could
patronize brothels to satisfy their sexual desires.\nHashimoto also
apologized for the controversy that the remarks in question had caused and
indicated his desire to retract them at a May 25 meeting of the leadership
of the Japan Restoration Party in Tokyo.\nMaking reference to the frequent
sexual assaults on female soldiers occurring inside the US military and the
sexual crimes committed by US soldiers in Okinawa, Hashimoto explained that
he had made the remarks in an effort to make the point that it was
necessary to work hard to eliminate sexual crimes.\nHashimoto has yet to
retract the offensive remarks made at a press conference on May 13 that
comfort women were necessary for soldiers during the war. Remarking that he
was resigned to being criticized for his controversial remarks about
comfort women, Hashimoto reiterated the same position. “Japan is not the
only country that should be criticized,” he said. “Instead, we need to
turn our attention to the history of every country that has used women on
the battlefield.”\nThe Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Japan has
invited Hashimoto to hold a press conference on May 27, where he is
planning to explain his remarks.\nOn May 26, the Tokyo Shimbun reported
that the leadership of the Japan Restoration Party is worried that, if
Hashimoto’s remarks are taken to mean that the party is moving further
toward the right, it may well mean the end of the party.\n
https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/06/08/18738167.php
SUMMARY:Japan Consulate Action-Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Out-Keep The Nukes Shut And Stop Repress
LOCATION:6/11 Japan Consulate Action-Osaka Mayor Hashimoto Out-Keep The Nukes Shut
And Stop Repressing Anti-Nuke Activists\nTuesday June 11, 2013 3:00 PM -
5:00 PM\nSan Francisco Japanese Consulate\n50 Fremont St./Mission\nSan
Francisco
URL:https://www.indybay.org/newsitems/2013/06/08/18738167.php
DTSTART:20130609T124400Z
DTEND:20130609T124400Z
END:VEVENT
END:VCALENDAR